Teachers Buzz Apr 14 2008 Transcript
From NMC-Campus
StoryMachine with Graham Mills
NMC Teachers Buzz 14 April 2008
Corwin Carillon: welcome David, Calisto
Elle Bellah: ah nice
Calisto Encinal: Hi!
Elle Bellah: ok well I will take a seat then
Graham Mills: Cheers
Corwin Carillon: Welcome Mash, Alphabunny, Kiddo
Alphabunny Jewell: hello Corwin
Kiddo Avro: hi corwin
Kiddo Avro: so is this a class for something or what?
Corwin Carillon: Welcome everyone to the NMC Teachers Buzz session ..
Corwin Carillon: first of all...
Corwin Carillon: I'd like to remind you that the sessions are recorded and chat transcripts put online ... is everyone ok with that?
DavidDavis Lyle: Yes
Calisto Encinal nods.
Carolrb Roux: yes
Kiddo Avro: yes
Elle Bellah: yes
Corwin Carillon: that's great ... thanks and ....
Graham Mills: Well, firstly thanks to Corwin and the NMC for letting me demo StoryMachine after failing to make the last gadget Buzz. Um, this could be a short one, lol.
Corwin Carillon: a big thank you for Dudeney Ge for lettings us use Edunation and an even bigger thank you to Graham for agreeing to run the session
Corwin Carillon: heh :)
Graham Mills: Thanks also to Dudeney Ge for letting us use EduNation II. I promised we wouldn't break it (or was it the other way round?)
Graham Mills: I have bandwidth issues sometimes so please bear with me <sigh>
Graham Mills: I also apologise for using FastPaste under Windows rather than typing but I'm thinking you have other places to be tonight, lol
Alphabunny Jewell: no wories, plow on! =0}
Graham Mills: I'm mainly chatting about StoryMachine though I'll also mention a couple of other interests. If there are common themes they would be 3D (+ time) and trying to empower others.
Graham Mills: My belief is not so much "build it and they will come" but rather "help them build it and they will stay". I think that's ultimately the SL way?
Graham Mills: Anyway, this is me
Graham Mills: I've been involved in supporting this kind of activity since 84
Graham Mills: A long time
Graham Mills: But I love SL
Graham Mills: It has a lot going for it
Graham Mills: BUT (big BUT)
Graham Mills: There is that learning curve
Graham Mills: And many avs don't make it
Graham Mills: Is that what you find?
Ginger Questi: it is an issue
Graham Mills: So, one possibility is the gadget approach
Graham Mills: Anyone not seen the spidergram
Graham Mills: It's a neat tool
DavidDavis Lyle: I haven't.
Alphabunny Jewell: i have not either
Elle Bellah: me niether
Graham Mills: Just touch it to rez a node
Graham Mills: You can choose a color
Graham Mills: Alpha
Graham Mills: Touch again and you get a menu
Graham Mills: OK -- now we have two nodes
Graham Mills: We can link them
Graham Mills: And so on
Decka Mah: awesome
Graham Mills: As you can see on the slide, you can generate useful mindmaps
Graham Mills: Only problem is, you need basic prim skills
Decka Mah: what for Graham?
Dolgoruki Keene: +
Graham Mills: To move the nodes around
Graham Mills: Trivial -- except when you're just starting
Graham Mills: My students are biologists, not builders
Decka Mah: aha well that is aboput as basic as it gets. I have never met anyone who could not master that in about 5 minutes
Graham Mills: But you need cam skills too to work in 3D
Decka Mah: if you can manage to eat with a knife and fork, you can manage prim movement
Graham Mills: lol
Elle Bellah: yes but try to sell your university on using SL when they see anything more than a mouse click
Graham Mills: Compared to web 2.0
Graham Mills: It is tricky
Mash Beerbaum: There are many at our institution that have trouble even in 2D
Graham Mills: Anyway, the other interest was in storing maps
Decka Mah: omg university students who can't manage more than a double mouse click...what are they doing at university?
Elle Bellah: no the adminsitators but I interrupt gram here
Graham Mills: StoryM was an attempt to get a text-only approach
Graham Mills: For a quick start
Graham Mills: It's all driven from a notecard
Graham Mills: But it's still sketchy
Graham Mills: Can everyone see that?
Decka Mah: Handling text is one of the greates challenges within SL
Elle Bellah: yes
Graham Mills: So the disk is StoryM
Graham Mills: In the centre is the controller
Graham Mills: And then there are a range of nodes
Graham Mills: Basically according to where they live on the disk
Graham Mills: I'll give you a quick demo
Decka Mah: Oh if only SL would make those wonderful text labels in blue and white in the world *dreams wistfully*
Elle Bellah: giggle
Controller whispers: Graham Mills chose 'Intro1+>'.
Controller: This script demonstrates the basic features of StoryMachine [1]
Controller: Scripts are started by selecting them from the Controller [2]
Controller: There are four types of node differing mainly in their location on the disk. This is an aNode [3]
Controller: The wedge-shaped aNodes are on the edge of the disk and act largely as static, non-interactive markers [4]
Controller: Above the aNodes are one or more bNodes. They can be located at one of five levels (numbered 1-5) [5]
Controller: bNodes are more interactive. We can add notecards and URLs to them and they have their own touch menu which allows us to do things like color them, adjust their height, etc. [6]
Controller: Nodes above the Controller are called cNodes. They behave much the same as bNodes [7]
Controller: The final node type is the mNode which is located midway between the centre and edge of the disk [8]
Controller: Nodes can change color (red, blue, green, cyan, magenta, yellow, black or white) [9]
Controller: Once rezzed, nodes can be linked with particle streams though a node can act as a source for only one stream [10]
Dolgoruki Keene: graham, why don't you speak?
Controller: We can add a URL to a node for subsequent reference using the bNode touch menu [11]
Graham Mills: OK
Controller: The presence of additional resources is shown using an animated texture [12]
Controller: That's all, folks. The script is in node cNode1. If you want to see it, select Note from that node's touch menu [13]
Graham Mills: So those are the basic node types
Controller whispers: Elle Bellah chose 'Sound on'.
Graham Mills: Did people catch the chat?
cNode1 whispers: Here is the requested card
Elle Bellah: yes
Dolgoruki Keene: i mean, not typing, but speaking
Elle Bellah: may we push the buttons?
Graham Mills: So you can add a commentary
Decka Mah: yes thanks Graham
Corwin Carillon: yep
Elle Bellah: sound is in and out
Graham Mills: I think that's important because maps can be very personal
bNode1 whispers: Please touch again (known bug)
cNode1 whispers: Here is the requested card
Graham Mills: The nodes are interactive
cNode1 whispers: Here is the requested card
Controller whispers: Elle Bellah chose 'Intro2+>'.
Graham Mills: I see some of you are getty the script
Controller whispers: Decka Mah chose 'Intro1+>'.
Controller: This script demonstrates the basic features of StoryMachine [1]
Controller: Scripts are started by selecting them from the Controller [2]
Controller: There are four types of node differing mainly in their location on the disk. This is an aNode [3]
Decka Mah: ewps
Decka Mah: sorry
Corwin Carillon: hehe
Controller: The wedge-shaped aNodes are on the edge of the disk and act largely as static, non-interactive markers [4]
Graham Mills: np
Graham Mills: Any questions so far?
Controller: Above the aNodes are one or more bNodes. They can be located at one of five levels (numbered 1-5) [5]
Corwin Carillon: repetition never hurt :)
Controller whispers: Mash Beerbaum chose 'Intro4+>'.
Controller whispers: Elle Bellah chose 'bNodeRez'.
Controller whispers: Enter bNode params on channel 222, eg /222 bNode, nodeName, angle, level, with each param in quotes
bNode2 whispers: (No Description)
Graham Mills: Um, you can play more later
Corwin Carillon: what stories have you created so far?
Controller whispers: bNodeRez mode timed out
Corwin Carillon: And other people?
Controller whispers: StoryMachine is ready.
Graham Mills: lol, not a lot
Graham Mills: This is very early -- I want to get feedback
Graham Mills: And I haven't used it with students
Corwin Carillon thnks Graham is adding to the functionality :)
Graham Mills: But I think it's an interesting approach
Graham Mills: Yes, Corwin
Corwin Carillon: defintely
Graham Mills: So new users can edit existing scripts
Graham Mills: Or create their own
Graham Mills: The format is CSV
Graham Mills: So you could pull it from a database
Graham Mills: Web storage would be interesting
Graham Mills: These are some of the comads
Graham Mills: *commands
Decka Mah thinks maybe a great story on one of these is actually a way to teach (motivate learners) to learn good camera control and is thinking of word games, quests, etc *small lightbulb flashes overhead*
Graham Mills: lol, Decka
Graham Mills: You do need camera skills
bNode1 whispers: (No Description)
Graham Mills: Camera skills first, then prims
Graham Mills: Maybe?
Maali Beck nods
Decka Mah: I usually use the human dart board to teach them but this would be good too...less blood
Graham Mills: lol, so there you can rez the main node types
Graham Mills: and link them
Graham Mills: Unlinking today seems a bit futzed
Graham Mills: :(
Graham Mills: So these are the limitations on a GOOD day
Graham Mills: CSV is a little borked
Graham Mills: in LSL
Graham Mills: Use wiki-style node names
Graham Mills: Replace commas with ::
Graham Mills: ;;
Graham Mills: Some of you already tried the bNode menu
Graham Mills: You can change colors, levels, etc
Controller whispers: Dolgoruki Keene chose 'Intro3+>'.
Controller: Of course, it helps if we can see some examples of good practice [1]
Controller: Genome by Max Chatnoir manages to be both evocative and educational, providing a range of simulated genetics experiments in a setting that is part tranquil, part high-intensity lab [2]
Controller: Dante's Inferno by Desi Stockton and Eloise Pasteur is part of a distributed project called Literature Alive! that provides contextual content for those studying important texts, in this case the 9 circles of Hell [3]
Controller: THE END [4]
Graham Mills: What I was trying to demo is that you can tag
Graham Mills: And add additional links
Graham Mills: StoryM is not really intended for this scal of use
Graham Mills: Better with 2-3 students
Decka Mah: Ho w do you control input form a group like this in a class setting to stop each person over riding the others?
Graham Mills: Working collaboratively
Graham Mills: lol, Decka -- my point entirely
Graham Mills: I think it could be done
Decka Mah: sorry we passed messages in the ether
Graham Mills: But not the best use
Graham Mills: Here are some thoughts on how it might be used
Graham Mills: We could think of the aNodes in a range of ways
Graham Mills: They could be dates on a timeline
Graham Mills: Minutes in a scheduled lesson
Decka Mah: Names in the class
Graham Mills: Anything you want
Graham Mills: that makes sense to you
Graham Mills: and you can explain to others
Elle Bellah: Well it does provide a way to connect the dots of concepts when speaking in sl
Graham Mills: Yes -- it's a very rich environment
Graham Mills: Don't want to lose the main thread
Graham Mills: But I'm not saying that this replaces conventional SL use
Elle Bellah: a sort of black board
Graham Mills: Maybe, but something to be used with discreation
Graham Mills: Another tool
Graham Mills: *discretion, lol
Decka Mah: Great tool to debrief a SL activity that lets you see inside the student's heads a little
Maali Beck: I'd like to do that!
Graham Mills: Yes, Decka
Graham Mills: They must do the work
Graham Mills: Compare their thoughts with their compadres
Graham Mills: and the teacher
Graham Mills: I actually like the idea of using levels
Maali Beck: afk
Graham Mills: Get different students to work on related but distinct areas
Graham Mills: Come back, link them up
Graham Mills: Anyway, StoryM on its own would be boring after a while
Graham Mills: So I've been thinking of more, um, kinetic approaches
Graham Mills: Hence the Tower
Graham Mills: Which you can see on the slide and in the background, lol
Graham Mills: Its merit is that it fits in a 30 m parcel
Graham Mills: And yet encapsulates a journey
Graham Mills: One I'm working on is the journey of a typhoid bacillus thro the gut
Graham Mills: It's very conceptual
Graham Mills: But not beyond a student
Graham Mills: or group thereof
Graham Mills: Map some topic onto 5 levels
Graham Mills: It's actually fun just to run around on
Graham Mills: And wall off
Graham Mills: *fall
Graham Mills: (motor skills)
Decka Mah: lag management skilss LOL
Graham Mills: Anyone that wants a tower, let me know
Decka Mah: Yes please
Graham Mills: It's very rough build but it'll get you thinking
Xilin Yifu: yes please...i would love a tower graham....
Elle Bellah: me too
Graham Mills: Finally, thinking again in 3D and wanting to, um, give colleagues something they could relate to
Corwin Carillon: pls Graham, thx
Graham Mills: (I'm a biologist, remember)
Calisto Encinal: Yes, please, Graham.
Robin Mochi: yes, thanks.
Graham Mills: I've been playing with Troy's protein rezzing scripts
Atom: :39:C:ASN
Graham Mills: If you look up, you'll see lysozym
Graham Mills: An important enzyme that defends our membranes against bacteria
Atom: :30:CA:CYS
Calisto Encinal feels like brushing his teeth.
Maali Beck: lol
Graham Mills: As you can see, it does particle effects too -- that was alpha helix
Atom: :35:C:GLU
Corwin Carillon grins at Calisto
Rod: (No Description)
Rod: (No Description)
Atom: :3:CA:PHE
Graham Mills: A much smaller amount of beta
Maali Beck counts the number of prims
Graham Mills: So again, I've created a website and a toolkit
Atom: :56:CA:ILE
Graham Mills: lol, huge number
Atom: :24:N:SER
Maali Beck: yes, I see!
Rod: HELIX
Rod: HELIX
Rod: SHEET
Graham Mills: That actually raises an issue
Calisto Encinal: Are they temp, though?
Maali Beck: temp or not, you have to have a large prim allowance to rez them
Calisto Encinal: Temp don't count against totals.
Xilin Yifu: sorry...what is a temp?
Graham Mills: As with Literature Alive, I'd like to see these distributed troughout SL
Maali Beck: temporary
Xilin Yifu: ah!
Graham Mills: As public sculptures
Graham Mills: And searchable via the in-world search
Xilin Yifu: ummm...i am still a bit vague about temporary prims (i guess you mean)
Graham Mills: lol, these aren't temps or they'd have gone by now
Victoria Bury: k you :-)
Calisto Encinal: Could they be and could you script the time that they were present?
Graham Mills: Um, I think that would be pretty intensive too
Graham Mills: You mean a holodeck approach?
Graham Mills: Or rezzing only when avs are near?
Corwin Carillon: or temp on rez I guess
Calisto Encinal: No, more like temporary so they wouldn't count against your prim count.
Maali Beck thinks Calisto is thinking wishfully
Calisto Encinal smiles.
Corwin Carillon: there are on temp on rez scipts that do this but ...
Calisto Encinal: Don't burst my bubble, Maali.
Maali Beck: ;-0
Corwin Carillon: only for prims ..
Corwin Carillon: no other scripts inside
Calisto Encinal: Oh, okay. Thanks Corwin.
Corwin Carillon: oops we lost Graham ...
Corwin Carillon: he will be back in a sec ...
Corwin Carillon: he said he was having probs before
Decka Mah: maybe e was temp on rez LOL
Calisto Encinal: lol
Corwin Carillon: lol
Corwin Carillon: hehe what timing!
Victoria Bury: hhaha
Decka Mah: I think all avatars are temp on rez in SL
Maali Beck: just what I was thinking, Decka
Maali Beck: pretty much, yes!
Corwin Carillon: my brain often feels that way RL
Decka Mah: some days more temp than others LOL
Maali Beck: lol, Corwin
Corwin Carillon: so while were waiting ...
Decka Mah: I would like to see students using this tool
Decka Mah: wondering if it is more collaboratory because it is in here than say cmap on the web
Corwin Carillon: how has what Graham has shown us sparked your imagination for things in your area of work?
Calisto Encinal: Could you see your students using it, Maali?
Maali Beck: possibly, but I came in 20 min. late, so I'd need a referesher
Calisto Encinal: I could see them mapping out a dialog in Spanish.
Maali Beck: missed a lot, I think
Robin Mochi: same here, missed the first 20 min. couldn't find this place.
Xilin Yifu: yes...i think it could be useful for teaching grammar too
Calisto Encinal: Or I could put the dialog out there mixed up and they would have to put it in order.
Corwin Carillon: Graham has shown Eloise's mapping tool, Troy's protein rezzer (adapted) and his StoryMachine
Calisto Encinal: Yes, Xilin, it could work for grammar as well.
Calisto Encinal: What might you do?
Xilin Yifu: i need to think it through a bit more.....
Corwin Carillon: students constructing stories of key learning experiences?
Calisto Encinal: Questions and answers?
Corwin Carillon: students could be student teachers too
Maali Beck: wb Graham
Xilin Yifu: but an initial thought is that it could be used to lay out the basic grammar structure of chinese in a more interesting format
Corwin Carillon: wb graham
Calisto Encinal: Or for conjugating verbs, each step in the process.
Xilin Yifu: that students could learn progressively as they move down the tower
Graham Mills: Sorry, folks. Electrons must be getting tired
Maali Beck: lol
Victoria Bury: :-)
Corwin Carillon: :)
Maali Beck: I read that as 'Elections
Maali Beck: lol
Maali Beck: those too
Corwin Carillon: lol
Graham Mills: I think our time is more or less up
Graham Mills: Any questions?
Calisto Encinal: Is there a copy here that we could get?
Graham Mills: lol
Elle Bellah: a copy of the machine is avaialble at the teleports?
Graham Mills: yes
Xilin Yifu: graham....can we call on you for further advice if necessary?
Corwin Carillon: we have been chatting about exploitation Graham while you were recharging :)
Graham Mills: Um, copy of StoryMachine
Elle Bellah: yes
Graham Mills: As it stands, somewhat imperfect
Graham Mills: Sure
Maali Beck: a work in progress!
Maali Beck: :-)
Graham Mills: See if you can buy that?
Calisto Encinal: Yes
Elle Bellah: understood it is a work in progress, it would be nice to have in bag of tricks and let you know what applciations we come up sith
Graham Mills: Cool -- you can try it in the sandbox
Decka Mah: thanks very much Graham
Decka Mah: how about getting the tower ?
Calisto Encinal: Thank you, Graham. Very interesting and inspiring.
Graham Mills: I don't think it has that longer script I showed you
Graham Mills: Um, the Tower
Xilin Yifu: yes...thank you graham!
Elle Bellah: sorry to be slow and what is it we are supposed to click to purchase the gadge?
Elle Bellah: *gadget?
Maali Beck: the box
Graham Mills: Rightclick and buy for L$0
Corwin Carillon: right click the yellow boxes and choose buy
Elle Bellah: pardon the multicolor box?
Decka Mah: thanks Graham got the tower too
Graham Mills: Unsupported
Elle Bellah: oh the yellow rez box?
Calisto Encinal: Tiger pring
Calisto Encinal: print*
Graham Mills: The Tower is a bit problematic
Graham Mills: Seems like the perms on the upper story are borked
Calisto Encinal: Have a great night, everyone!
Elle Bellah: ty
Robin Mochi: thank you!
Maali Beck: adios, Calisto
Graham Mills: But good for one rez
Maali Beck: oops, gone
Maali Beck: lol
Decka Mah: same warranty as OpenSim I assume Graham...if I break it, I get to keep both pieces LOL
Maali Beck: ty, Graham
Graham Mills: Feel free to have a wander round
Elle Bellah: kk thanks
Xilin Yifu: thank you!
Corwin Carillon: Before we all depart ...
Graham Mills: lol, yes, Decka
Victoria Bury: thanks graham
Corwin Carillon: can we all say thanks to graham ! :)
Graham Mills: yvw
Corwin Carillon: hehe too slow
Corwin Carillon: thanks G
robrob McCoy: thanks Graham
Graham Mills: :)
Lefresne Bernard: Thank-you
Graham Mills: yw
CasperVan Dibou: Thanks Graham!
Decka Mah: Thnaks for moving the boundaries on my understanding of SL possibilities Graham
Graham Mills: lol, and generating massive lag to boot
Corwin Carillon: I think SL manages that all on its own ...
Corwin Carillon: thanks everyone for coming to the session!
Graham Mills: I'll keep the SLED list updated if I get a good version
Xilin Yifu: oooo...like the shirt robrob!
Corwin Carillon: And our thanks again to Dudeney Ge for supplying the location!
robrob McCoy: heheh looks like we both got the memo on pink!
Xilin Yifu: lol
Xilin Yifu: it suits you though! very nice!
Victoria Bury: :-)
Xilin Yifu: robrob...have you met bern?
robrob McCoy: thankyouverymuch
Corwin Carillon: I will get the transcript on the wiki it the next couple of days
Graham Mills: :)
robrob McCoy: no hello bern
Xilin Yifu: bern...this is robrob...a classmate of mine
Corwin Carillon: http://sl.nmc.org/wiki
Xilin Yifu: robrob...bern is an old friend of vicky and me.....
Graham Mills: Um, might need some editing Corwin
Xilin Yifu: and a great scripter to boot!
Xilin Yifu: lol
Lefresne Bernard: Hi, robrob
robrob McCoy: very nice to meet you!
CasperVan Dibou: Similar to the wikitecture treee with leaves?
Xilin Yifu: we were just going to walk to the tower to have a look
Lefresne Bernard: Nice to meet you too!
Corwin Carillon: ok G
Lefresne Bernard: Sorry, I'm a bit lagging
Xilin Yifu: i know what you mean bern...its slow here too!
Lefresne Bernard: I'm on the 'older' computer now :-J
Xilin Yifu: ahhhh
Victoria Bury: sorry eating my dinner, limited movement :-)
Xilin Yifu: great robrob!
Xilin Yifu: hope to see you later then
robrob McCoy: cya folks....have a great evening
Xilin Yifu: byeee
Victoria Bury: bye robrob
Graham Mills: bye
robrob McCoy: bby
Graham Mills: Sure
Decka Mah: bye all thnaks for sharing your thoguhts. Great ideas flowing
Corwin Carillon: bye everyone
Graham Mills: Bye Corwin
